23rd Hunger Games better title coming soon
by FickleSunfries
Summary: Cella Jonski from District 7 gets chosen for the 24th annual Hunger Games. On her way up to the stage, she thought things were as bad as they could get. She wasn't expecting Irradik, her brother, to be chosen as well.
1. Intro

I'm not sure how to say this, but life sucks. Or it stabs, slices, or it even decapitates you sometimes. But most of all, it just sucks. This story may seem like fun and games to you, but it's not. It's games alright, but not the fun kind. This story that I'm telling to you right now, I'll only tell once. It bad enough to have to relive my horrors everyday, I don't want to have to listen to them out loud. Listen close, and pay attention. This is the story of how I, Cella Jonski, when I was fifteen, won the 23rd Annual Hunger Games.


	2. Chapter 1

I woke up to the rhythmic clatter of an ax hitting a large coniferous tree. My eyes shot open and I stood up. I moved the back of my shirt around to loosen the bark that had stuck to the back. I couldn't believe that I had fallen asleep on the job again. I looked around to see if anyone saw me, and wondered how long I had been out. The last think I remembered was sitting down to eat lunch and take a break. That was at about noon. I looked up to the sky to find the approximate position of the sun, only to discover it was nearly where I left it, I couldn't have been asleep for more than fifteen minutes. I crouched down to pick up the rest of the food. I quickly shoved the rest of the bread that I was eating, a couple of grapes and an orange slice into my mouth. I walked back to my station chewing slowly. There wasn't exactly a food shortage in District seven like there was in the lower districts, but it was still controlled. Every day you showed up for work you would grab a meal from a station with a Peacekeeper,then he would give you two bags that have your lunch and dinner in them. That was all you had to eat for the day unless you bought some other food yourself. Having money in District seven was rare. District seven was pretty poor when you compared it to the capital, but much richer than District twelve or eleven.

I unscrewed the cap to my water canteen and took a nice long swig. I took off my bright yellow hard hat and poured just a bit of the cold liquid on my hair. The day was really hot for only being the first month of summer. I wished I could find out a way to put my long brown hair in a bun and also have it work with the hard hat, but the giant lump of hair wouldn't cooperate with the hat. Maybe, I thought, if my hair was shorter it would work. But cutting my hair was never an option for me. I think I would cry if I cut it, so most of the time it just sat in a braid over my left shoulder.

I put my hat back on and picked up a large ax that was leading against a tree with a cut deep into it and started chopping.

I finally called timber as the sun was beginning to set. I threw my ax over my shoulder and began walking back toward my base. I was starving. That had been a really thick tree and had taken me hours to complete. I was exhausted and my stomach rumbled. The only dinner I had eaten was a strip of beef and some more grapes. Then, as if the answer to my growling stomach, I heard a rustle and saw a rabbit up ahead. I stopped moving and reached into my burlap sack that I had been carrying. I very slowly, without taking my eyes off the rabbit, felt around for my tool belt that had been thrown in there because it was too hot to wear. I found the main strip of the belt and grabbed the lightest hatchet I had. It only weight about two pounds, perfect for throwing. I looked at my feet, carefully and silently placing them towards the rabbit. I looked up and the rabbit was only about fifteen feet away. I raised the hatched up in the air, took aim, and threw.

It raced through the air and just a millisecond after the rabbit looked up, it sliced clean through its neck. The poor rabbit had no idea what was happening, but at least he died instantly. I walked toward the now dead rabbit, and picked up the body. The head was too gross and terrifying to deal with touching. I used the bloody hatched to dig a shallow hole in which I nosed the rabbit head into with the tip of my shoe. I held the carcass upside down above the hole and waited for most of the blood to fall out. After it stopped running too fluidly, I shoved the small pile of dirt over it, like I was trying to cover up a crime. It was a crime, anyway. Killing the animals that wondered onto our grounds was illegal. The capitol had called it "stealing from them". But who was I to let some stupid naive rabbit cross my path and just let it hop away? Maybe if this was some sort of fairy tale, but this however, was real life. And in real life, rabbit tasted good.

I took out the tool belt and put in on, I didn't want a reason to have to open my sack until I got home. I walked back to the stations with the peacekeepers. I walked up to one and took off my tool belt and sat in on the counter in front of him. He took it and put it in bucket that had _Cella Jonski_ labeled on it. He looked up at me.

"Maybe after tomorrow we won't need this bucket anymore." He laughed at me.

I gave him a look of disgust as he handed me my lumberjack card. "Happy Hunger Games!" He called after me as I rushed out of there. _Stupid old peacekeepers and their twisted humor_. I walked along the wide dirt path toward my house and started thinking. What if he was right? What if he really didn't need to keep the bucket with my name on it? What if my name was called at tomorrow's Reaping? I kept thinking about it until I reached all the way back to my house.

I opened the door with the burlap sack still on my back. I expected to see my mother sitting on our couch reading her favorite book, but instead there was Irradik, my brother, crouched on the floor with his hand under the sofa.

"What are you doing?" I asked him as he turned to look at me.

"I saw a mouse run under here." he moved his hand around. "I don't want it getting away and eating our food."

Irradik was a tall, toned eighteen years old. His hair was brown, but darker than mine, and it was cut short to his scalp. His eyes were the same dark chocolate as mine. All the girls at school had a slight crush on him, but he already had a girlfriend. Her name was Kara and I really liked her. He had been with her since he was fourteen, and she was like an older sister to me. She was a year older than Irradik so she was safe from the Reaping.

I took off the sack and extended it toward him. "I got a rabbit today."

He looked up at me and huffed. "You know you're not supposed to do that."

"It walked out right in front of me, what was I supposed to do?" I huffed back.

Irradik stood up. "You should with all these peacekeepers around. There's way more than the usual."

"Yeah I know. Now here." I handed him the bag. "It's your turn to cook tonight."

He took the bag from me and gave me a look that said 'I'm disappointed' but a slight detectable smile said 'thank you'.


End file.
